Since then a literal deluge of 360º cameras/devices have hit crowd-funding platforms as have novel and interesting alternatives to the Oculus Rift-see below.

With so many impressive 360º cameras likely to be available by the end of the year, it begs the question how will the user CONSUME this 360º content?

Remember some of these cameras can LIVESTREAM 360º Video!

There are a growing number of Apps available for Android and iOS ( I don’t know of any for Windows but if you do please share in comments below)

which will give you a 360º Video player. The one I’ve used for demonstrations is Freedom360Player which uses the accelerometer, gyroscope etc to orientate the image as you move your head (head-tracking)

It looks like this

but notice this App doesn’t emulate the 2 up Immersive 3D display that is now synonymous with “Immersive Video:

This is where Immersive Headsets like the Oculus Rift and these others come in to their own….

But, until now there has been a genuine risk that Developers wouldn’t bother coding Apps for this Immersive platform.

Immersive is (somewhat) unproven and new, 3DTV left a lot of hot air in its wake but without the promised audience adoption.

However Google’s Cardboard, albeit extremely rudimentary may help to convince a wary audience of the potential of Immersive Video and Games, before they outlay on any of the headsets mentioned above.

This could be the catalyst that helps in the proof of concept stage that will lead to wider audience adoption and hopefully some really innovative uses.

The designs to build you’re own “Cardboard” are on the Google Developers site (Click image of template) or